Giant Pecan (1962)

Seguin, Texas, United States

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Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.

A 5-foot-long concrete pecan built in 1962 and weighing about 1,000 pounds, according to Texas Highways, stood outside the Guadalupe County Courthouse in downtown Seguin, Texas, when Texas Highways reported on it in November 2024. It was made as the world's largest pecan before bigger ones were built.

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Giant Pecan (1962)

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Approximate location · 29.569° N, 97.965° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

Texas Highways calls Seguin "the Pecan Capital of Texas", and its original giant pecan started a long-running rivalry over the title of world's largest.

According to Texas Highways in 2024, local dentist Edmund "Doc" Darilek established a pecan orchard on his farm in 1958 and in 1962 built what was then the world's largest pecan, displaying it on the north side of the Guadalupe County Courthouse. The magazine gives its weight as 1,000 pounds and its length as 5 feet. Texas Highways's Daytripper column, by contrast, says a group of locals wanted to honour the town's pecan industry and built the concrete pecan. Visit Seguin calls it a passion project of a local dentist.

It was named for Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, the 16th-century Spanish explorer who, Texas Highways says, called the Guadalupe River "the river of nuts". Visit Seguin says he was held captive on that river for nine years.

The title did not last. Texas Highways reports that in 1982 pecan farmers in Brunswick, Missouri, built a concrete pecan 7 by 12 feet and 12,000 pounds. Seguin took the record back when the Leadership Seguin class of 2010 to 2011 raised funds for a 16-by-8-foot fiberglass pecan, which stands outside the Texas Agricultural and Heritage Center on Cordova Road. A city official told the magazine that visitors see both, but his own heart is with the original, which sits in the downtown historic district.

Texas Highways reported that the original was repainted on 10 November 2024. Texas Highways places it on Court House Square beside the courthouse at 101 E. Court Street.

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WHAT TO EXPECT

Texas Highways reported the original pecan on Court House Square outside the Guadalupe County Courthouse in downtown Seguin. It was repainted in November 2024, the magazine reported. The larger 2010 to 2011 pecan is a separate stop at the Texas Agricultural and Heritage Center on Cordova Road.

ACCESS

Outside the Guadalupe County Courthouse, 101 E. Court Street, Seguin, on Court House Square in the downtown historic district (Texas Highways, 2024). It sits beside the courthouse, not at city hall.

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Find another Big Thing nearby

A fiberglass mobile pecan built by Kenneth Pape of Pape Pecan House, originally 10 feet long and displayed outside the business for years; in 2022, local resident John Pape mounted an updated 11-foot-long pecan onto a trailer for easy transport in parades and community events. Billed by Roadside America as the 'World's Second Largest Mobile Pecan.' Distinct from Seguin's two other giant pecans -- the 1962 original at city hall and the 16-ft current record pecan at the Texas Agricultural and Heritage Center, both separately catalogued in this cohort.

Roadside giants

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